Soon-Young Yoon

Soon-Young Yoon is a Korean-American advocate for women's human rights. She currently serves as a United Nations representative of the International Alliance of Women and in that capacity served also as Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New Yorkfrom 20111 to 2015. She is currently First Vice-President of the Conference of NGOs.

She was born in Pyongyang, Korea, grew up in Ann Arbor and holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of Michigan. She has worked with UNICEF in Southeast Asia and the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia in New Delhi. She is a board member of the International Advisory Council at the Harvard AIDS Initiative, Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) and the International Foundation for Ewha Womans University. She works as a consultant for the WHO on women and tobacco issues. She is the main representative of the International Alliance of Women to the United Nations ECOSOC, and in that capacity was also Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New York from 2011 to 2015. She is currently the First Vice-President of The Conference of NGOs.

She is married to Richard Mills Smith, former Editor-in-Chief, CEO and Chairman of Newsweek, and President of the Pinkerton Foundation.